Diet & Nutrition Services

Some people with IBD may benefit from making dietary changes. This may include adding foods into your diet to ensure nutritional adequacy as well as limiting foods that aggravate your symptoms or inflammation. Since everyone is unique, there is no specific diet that everyone with IBD should follow. It can be helpful to work with a dietitian to find a diet that is both enjoyable and sustainable for you.

Any patient who has been diagnosed with IBD and is followed by a gastroenterologist at The IBD Centre of BC can see the dietitian.

Your first meeting with the dietitian is usually done in person but you can arrange for a telehealth consultation if you are located far from the Centre and travelling to us is difficult. During your first appointment, which takes between 30-60 minutes, the dietitian will gather detailed information about your typical diet, allergies and intolerances, medications and supplements, weight history and lifestyle factors. After that, the dietitian will collaborate with you to develop food and nutrition strategies that work for you.

We recommend recording your dietary intake, gastrointestinal symptoms, and lifestyle factors over the course of a week. Tracking can be useful for determining whether there are trends in what triggers your symptoms. Here’s a document you can print and use to log your eating and symptoms.

Our dietitian can provide you with evidence-based recommendations to help you make informed decisions about your diet both in times of flare ups and remission. 

Some of the topics you may discuss with the dietitian are:

• The nutritional adequacy of your diet.
• Ways to support weight gain, if needed.
• Strategies to help manage your specific symptoms (e.g., diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, nausea).
• Dietary patterns that can help optimize health and manage inflammation.
• How to manage nutrition and hydration status with an ostomy, strictures and/or short bowel syndrome.
• Nutrition for other comorbidities, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), celiac disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

• Low Insoluble Fibre Diet
• Nourishing Liquids
• FODMAP Label Reading
• Common Brands of Low-FODMAP Foods
• FODMAP Challenge Phase
• Food and Symptom Log
• IBD Pregnancy Nutrition
• Nutrition During an IBD Flare

• Eating Disorders & IBD: Understanding the Connection
• Can Turmeric Help with IBD?
• The Lowdown on Omega-3s
• Dairy and IBD
•  Resistant Starch
• Intermittent Fasting
• Probiotics and Prebiotics